1:30 p.m. May 17, 2026 Annual Meeting of the BVHS
2:00 p.m. May 17, 2026, Christine Nowak Lecture by Jeffrey A. Denman.
Blackstone Valley Historical Society, 1873 Old Louisquisset Pike, Lincoln, RI 02865
Jeffrey A. Denman will come to BVHS on 2:00 p.m. on May 17 to give a talk about his book, John Quincy Adams, Reluctant Abolitionist. Denman is a historian, author, and retired American history teacher from Brookline, Massachusetts, who writes books focusing on the late 18th and early 19th centuries, particularly the American Revolution. He is the author of Philadelphia Quakers and the American Revolution, and he is the co-author of Greene and Cornwallis in the Carolinas. Denman gives a fresh view of Adams in his book, examining his life and work on the issue of slavery.
The publisher’s blurb for this book notes that “As a Harvard alumnus, diplomat, US President, member of Congress and attorney before the Supreme Court, John Quincy Adams had a unique relationship with slavery. Prickly and curmudgeonly, he danced with abolitionists, but never became one himself. However, Adams did harbor an intense hatred for the arguments of Southern slaveholders, and eventually found himself in the center of America’s greatest struggle.
Informed by Adams’s revealing and often tormented musings from his vast diary, this sweeping narrative offers a unique and gripping account of John Quincy Adams’s battle with slavery, while exploring the many fault lines in American society that led to the Civil War. Also included are the dramatic showdowns on the floors of the House of Representatives and Supreme Court, as well as Adams’s attempts at outsmarting Southern politicians and his efforts to keep slavery at the forefront of Congressional activities.”
Read more about Denman on his website: https://www.jeffreyadenman.com
Free event. Light refreshments will be served after the talk.
